John MacBride

John MacBride (7 May 1868-5 May 1916) was a leader of the Irish Volunteers during the failed 1916 Easter Rising.

Biography
John MacBride was born in Westport, County Mayo, Ireland to an Irish Catholic family, and he worked as a chemist before joining the Irish Republican Brotherhood. In 1893, the British government claimed that he was a "dangerous nationalist", and MacBride led a battalion of Irish volunteers during Transvaal's fight against the United Kingdom in the Second Boer War. In 1905, MacBride returned to Ireland after living in Paris, France for several years, and he became the second-in-command at Jacob's Factory under Thomas MacDonagh and his brigade. MacBride was captured, and he told his firing squad that he was not afraid of death after looking down the muzzles of several guns in South Africa. On 5 May 1916, he was executed by a British Army firing squad.